Word Limit: 800

He sat on the couch that night, at the right hand side closest to the door that led out and into the bathroom, the stairwell.

It was cold, he remembered that clearly, even if everything else was a red-hued blur, even if the rest of it made little sense.

It was a Thursday, there was nothing on tv, nothing to occupy his time.

And so Dex had taken one of the small, slim pieces of paper and placed it on his tongue. It had been a while, so why not? He figured he deserved it; his week had been completely shit.

It tasted of nothing, just like he'd put normal paper in his mouth, not like it was any different at all. In fact, he didn't even feel any different, he didn't really notice that everything seemed slower, he didn't notice how much warmer he'd suddenly become.

The sudden screeching, a low, deep wail, from out in the hallway? Outside that door? He noticed it. He definitely noticed it.

It sent goosebumps arcing up his arms, had him standing up, stumbling backwards and very Newley gripping over himself in his haste to get away.

That noise.

It was like glass down a chalkboard. Not nails, no, it was worse than nails, it had a more fragile chime to the end of it, something he couldn't really explain, something he could only describe.

Dex stood up straighter, his vision kind of darkened, his limbs heavier all of a sudden. Because he was tired? Yeah, that was it, what else could it be? The paper had done fuck-all, so much for it.

He walked forwards slowly, opening the door quickly, smacking his shoulder against it in his haste to see what was going on.

The noise, the scraping, grating noise, it came from the bathroom. He badly even noticed the long, elongated shadow that drifted along in his wake, just behind him at all times, creeping along, beside his own shadow, next to it.

Dex slowly move towards the bathroom, stopping only once he was inside, once he had locked the door behind him. Why? He had no idea, habit probably. As soon as he did, the wailing stopped completely, and was replaced instead by the soft trickle of water running.

The bath curtain was closed, but that was where the sound of water was coming from, he had no doubt of that.

He looked around the bathroom, at the sink, the window above the toilet, the mirror above the sink. The mirror with the... the red make on it. He could see it clearly, each finger splayed out, something obviously in pain, the red streaking down to the left.

Blood. Holy shit. That was blood.

And. It was moving, too.

As he watched, the blood swept upwards, over the mirror, sliding across it in one burgundy mess.

Movement by the bath caught his eye too, a dark shape flitting across his vision quicker than he could track it.

There was crimson water flowing out of the side of the bath now, moving with a mind of its own, coming towards him, crawling like the dead from their graves over the tiles, each rivulet of water a hand, a claw reaching for him.

And he was frozen, unable to leave since his feet were cemented to the floor.

Not by fear, no, no, he was actually trapped, actually stuck to this floor, with the red and the burgundy and the crimson creeping up all around him.

The air three feet infront of his face was shivering, shaking, trembling a dark black, like static on an old television screen, except completely black, not grey, not white, bust black. It was sharp and pointed, and it had a gap in the middle of what he guessed was its face, a gap that was yellowed, filled with pus-coloured teeth.

It stood tall infront of him, completely still except for its constant flickering.

Then it screamed, a screech of pure fear, pure, biting terror and horror, screamed right into his face.

It flickered again then, shot fast past him, scraping against his chest with the force of a bullet train, straight out of the window, shattering glass all around him, across the floor, the toilet, the sky outside.

One shard lodged itself in the back of his hand, and it just sat there, reflected his face back at him when he held it up and looked up it in the light that came from outside. It had a face in it, one with a gap for a mouth, with pointed featured and a shaking black outline, somehow, it was kinda familiar to Dex.

He sat down then, blood soaking him, and that was when it all went black.

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I'm really not very happy with this, I apologise in advance 😂